The present disclosure relates to an anti-sweep assembly for limiting a plurality of articles from being removed from a wire, and more particularly relates to an anti-sweep peg assembly enabling only one article to be removed at a time. This disclosure also relates to an anti-sweep apparatus to be placed on a typical peg hook which allows a single article to be removed from the peg hook at a time.
Various articles that are offered for sale typically incorporate a slot which enables the articles to be mounted on a peg hook. The slots may be any regular or irregular shape including circular or elongate in the horizontal or vertical directions. The peg hooks serve the function of compactly storing the articles for sale and at the same time providing the prospective purchaser with a clear view of the front of the product. The peg hooks may be mounted at one end to an appropriate peg board, wall or stand (whether rotatable or stationary).
The conventional peg hook permits the easy removal of not just the forward or leading article, but a plurality or series of the following articles as well. Thus, hit-and-run thieves may enter a retail establishment, grab a whole row of the articles on a peg hook, and, with a single movement, sweep the entire row of articles from the peg hook in a fairly rapid operation. The thief may then either simply run away with the loot or rapidly conceal the articles and slowly withdraw from the retail establishment.
This type of stealing can be prevented if the peg hook enables only a single article to be removed from the peg hook at a time. In such an embodiment, a thief must stand in front of the peg hook, grabbing one article at a time. The longer he or she must stand there removing the articles one-by-one from the peg hook, the greater the likelihood of the thief being noticed and apprehended.
The problem of pilfering from peg hook mounted displays is well recognized in the prior art as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,501 (a coin-operated system), U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,300 (a key-operated system), U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,334 (using a close-fitting cage about the front of the peg hook) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,949 (using an undulating peg hook). Unfortunately, each of these approaches to solving the problem of pilferage has, in one way or another, defeated the very purposes for which the peg hook display is intended. Thus, the simple, generally horizontal movement of even the forward or leading article is no longer sufficient, and, in the worst cases, extraneous elements such as coins or keys are necessary to enable removal of an article from the peg hook. For example, for undulations of the peg hook to be sufficient to impede pilferage, the undulations must be so exaggerated that the removal of even the forward or leading article becomes more of an up-and-down motion than a generally horizontal motion on the part of the potential customer. Furthermore, if a series of the articles are loosely held by the thief, several articles can be forced past the undulations (with the several articles moving up and down as necessary to accommodate the undulations), although the number of articles which can thus be removed by a thief in a single swipe is minimized.
Another device which deals with the problem of pilfering from a peg hook is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,432 issued to Stein et al. on Jan. 27, 1998, the contents of which hereby being incorporated by reference herein. This device includes a apparatus and a peg hook. The peg hook contains slots to accept the apparatus, which is snapped thereto. Therefore, if a conventional peg hook is used, it must be modified to accept the apparatus. Further, since the apparatus snaps to the peg hook, it can potentially be unsnapped by anyone, including a thief.
The present disclosure includes an apparatus which can be installed onto a typical, unmodified peg hook. The apparatus can be installed to peg hooks that are already in use in stores. The apparatus of present disclosure can be wrapped around part of the wire of a peg hook, thus fully capturing the wire inside the apparatus and preventing the removal of the apparatus.